If you've never...

... colored on paper with crayons on a hot baking tray, you're missing out!

The kids (and I, especially!) had a fun time doing this over our Christmas break.  I had heard about it on another person's web site (can't remember who now), and decided to give it a try.   I highly recommend this activity.

Just heat up the baking sheets in the oven (about 200 degrees or so), then take them out and give the color-ers an oven mitt so they don't burn themselves.  The crayons melt right on the paper so they glide much more smoothly than normal.  I love how bright the colors get!

Powerful book

Strider and I just recently finished reading Twice Freed by Patricia St. John -- and it's now one of my all-time favorites!  It's historical fiction, centering on Onesimus, the runaway slave mentioned in the Bible in the book of Philemon.  This sounds like it would be rather dry, and I did not have high expectations for it, to be honest, but once we got to oh, about the second page, both Strider and I were definitely sucked in!  The author's characterization of Onesimus was so realistic -- he wasn't the easily-redeemed, mamby-pamby wimp that is the typical protagonist in "Christian fiction."

 The historical and geographical aspects were fascinating to read about, as the story traveled throughout the countryside of the Roman empire, and ultimately even to Rome itself (which was not portrayed in a romantic way at all).  After studying the Roman Empire for the last couple of months, we found this to be a nice "living" way to see further aspects of this time period.  And, of course, running into the people from the Bible, such as John Mark, Priscilla and Aquila, Demas, and especially Archippus, added a whole other depth of interest.

As soon as we got to the last page, both Strider and I wanted to look up the rest of Patricia St. John's writings -- we already reserved a few at the library!

Meanwhile, the younger set here has been enjoying this book:

While not "powerful" in quite the same way as Twice Freed, it's been an enjoyable read nontheless.  And definitely more intense than the average children's book.  I love how my kids get quiet with anticipation as we read it!

Reading books such as these on the couch with the kids = one of the best parts of homeschooling for me!

Video illustrating Sir Ken Robinson talk

My Friend Alleyn pointed out this video -- I love it!
The content/topic is very thought-provoking (as is Robinson's book, The Element, which I highly recommend), and the animate technique (animation technique?) is great fun to watch.  Mesmerizing, even.  I'm in awe of people who can think  -- and draw-- in this way!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Teaching the "atypical learner"

My daughter thinks very differently from the way I do, which has been a stretching experience for me as a teacher!  I mean that in a good way, too;  teaching has been very frustrating and hard at times, but I can also see how my character, and teaching abilities, are growing in the process.  Her "special needs" are good for both of us.  (I just need to remind myself of that over and over sometimes!)

This example made me laugh the other day.  We've been working on sequencing (for years now), since it is so crucial for both reading and comprehension.  Her brain clearly does not think in a linear way at this point, and it doesn't seem to bother her at all.  For instance, I told her to put these cards in the correct order, and then tell me the resulting story.  This is how she arranged the cards:

Here is what she said:  "First they put the water in the tank.  Then they put in the fish.  Then the fish are all gone.  And then they put the lid on the tank."

And there was no sense of "Gee, that's weird" to accompany this story!  She definitely lives in a crazy, but fun, world!  I definitely have my sequencing-lesson-plan work cut out for me.

Book Recommendation: The Phantom Tollbooth

One of the best things about teaching my kids now is watching them enjoy some of the very same books I loved as a kid.  One of my first favorite novels was The Phantom Tollbooth -- I was fascinated by it so much that I even tried to write a sequel to it.  (I was probably in about 3rd or 4th grade, so it was likely a very lame attempt...  but I enjoyed the process anyway!)

 

Recently I was able to introduce Strider to Milo, the main character, and go on all the adventures with him, as we listened to the audio version on a car trip.  I was nervous that it might not be as good as I remembered it, but when Strider started literally rolling around in the backseat because he was laughing so hard, I was satisfied.  The book really is quite clever, and even slips in all kinds of grammatical phenomena and educational vocabulary.  It's like the equivalent of the cooking method in which the chef hides all kinds of pureed vegetables in tasty dishes so the kids don't even know they're eating them.  Just as I'm a fan (and practitioner) of this kind of cooking, so also do I enjoy watching the kids learn while they're in hysterics over a fantasy story.

 

So, I highly recommend this books for grade-school kids (probably 3rd grade or higher), as well as adults.  (There are many cliches and phrases mentioned that only the adults are likely to catch the humor in.)  And, as it turned out, the audio version was fabulous.  We listened to one read by Norman Dietz and were amazed by how quickly he could switch between numerous voices.  I see there is also a version read by David Hyde Pierce, and I imagine that would be terrific as well!

Web site recommendation: Good educational videos

This list seems amazing to me! Such a great collection of so many topics.  Perfect for those times when I can't teach one of the kids right at the moment -- but the computer can.  :) 

There are even books (like "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?") for the preschool group.

www.neok12.com

Guess what the art project was this day...

My kids had fun making themselves (out of a roll of that cheap brown paper you can get at home improvement stores). 

I saw a suggestion to make 2 cut-outs per person, one for the front and one for the back, and then staple them together, stuffing old newspapers in between.  That idea sounded good  (although I had images of the kids using their paper-people as Taekwondo dummies.... and then images of brown paper and newspapers strewn all over the floor)  but we didn't do it.  The amount of effort it took to coordinate all 3 of them in their tracing, cutting, and coloring was more than enough for me.  I was too tired at the end to try and double all that effort!

So our characters are flat and still -- unlike the characters who made them.

For someone who has more storage space than I do, I think this would be a fun thing to do each year, and then keep to show the the kids as they grow.

An argument for not rushing into Kindergarten, or preschool, or pre-preschool...

(This is not intended to be a judgment on what anyone else has done in the past. God leads each family on different paths, I know. But, if anyone is trying to decide what to do with their young children in the future, here are some thoughts that would hopefully alleviate some of the pressure parents are feeling these days to get their kids into school-type activities as early as possible. It seems our society is pushing "school" for earlier and earlier ages, and parents sometimes feel their kids will be "behind" if they do not conform to this pattern. Au contraire, I say!)

Strider and Rayna are both old for their grade. In both cases, we did not start them in Kindergarten until they were already 6. Strider has been known to complain about this (pretty much on a weekly basis), since it means that most of his friends are in a grade above him, but we still stand by our decision to start kids late.

Over the years I've heard many compelling studies, statistics and reasons for why it's better not to rush kids into school, even if they are mentally and socially capable of doing so. Better Late Than Early by Raymond S. Moore and Dorothy N. Moore is a key book of this philosophy, and I highly recommend taking a look at it, if anyone is trying to decide about what to do with a young child. It seems counter-intuitive to our overly-ambitious culture, but it turns out that oftentimes starting a child in academics too early can actually be the opposite of beneficial.

According to what I've heard from several sources, the push to get every child reading at an earlier and earlier age has stemmed, at least in part, from the fact that parents want their kids in school at an earlier and earlier age (as opposed to having to pay for daycare). So, the teachers, faced with large classrooms of young children, find it easiest to keep them all calm by having them sitting at their desk reading or writing. Hence the need for early readers. BUT, studies have shown that the stronger readers later in life are often the ones who were not introduced to reading until they were older. There are various physiological facts about brain make-up, eyesight, etc., that indicate that we humans are probably not suited to this kind of work, on average, until later in life.

Besides these arguments, Pete and I also decided on a personal basis that we wanted our children to have options when they are in the high school years. Since our kids are on the smaller side of the spectrum (physically), they may end up benefitting from an extra year's worth of growth by that point (especially the boys). So, in a few years, we may choose to keep Strider in his current grade, or he may end up skipping a grade, depending on the goals for that part of life. It seemed wise to us to let that be the option -- as opposed to deciding later that he should repeat a year, or be held back at a later point when it's harder to handle that socially.

Pete was an older kid for his grade, too, by the time he was in high school. (He graduated when he was just 2 months shy of turning 19.) When I asked him if this was hard for him or if he felt like it was a negative aspect to his social life, he remarked that it was quite the opposite. He loved being one of the bigger kids (for a year or 2 anyway :) ), and being one of the first to get to drive, etc. So we're hoping our kids feel the same way!

When my kids were very young, I remember just chomping at the bit to get started on schooling them! It all looked so fascinating and I just wanted to dive in. And, in a few areas, we did do things early (such as reading aloud history books when Strider was 5 and 6), but for the most part I tried to restrain myself and let them play as long as possible.

From what I've read, there can be just as much, if not more, benefit in PLAYING in those younger years. Exploring, discovering, creating, analyzing..... all good abilities that I wanted, and still want, them to develop. Academics can wait!

Co-ops are great

Through our years of homeschooling so far, we've pretty much always been in some sort of co-op situation. My favorite kind is like the one we are involved in this year: not overly demanding, but consistent enough to present an outside challenge for the kids. I like the fact that the kids get to hear insights from other adults/teachers, and try projects, etc., that we wouldn't do at home.

Another positive aspect is giving the kids a chance to do things in a larger group, since they don't have that opportunity at home. For instance, this semester, our co-op takes some time each session to do a little team-building exercise in which the kids have to work together to compete in a particular challenge. (The challenge this past week was to build the biggest cantilevering structure out of toothpicks and clay!)

Giving presentations (public speaking, book reports, etc) is high on my list of skills I'd like to see developed in my kids, and a co-op provides a good setting for that kind of practice. This past week, the kids in our co-op were each assigned the task of writing and presenting a news story (since they went on a field trip to our local news station a couple of weeks ago). It was fun seeing what the kids came up with!

Strider chose to be "Johnny Anchor" and he reported a "breaking news story" about a giant purple cloth that had suddenly appeared, covering the entire top of the Bank of America building in the city. He then turned the broadcast over to "Maria Marshmallow," who interviewed a key eyewitness, "Miss Butterbottom" about her observations.

Then it was time to do the weather, as BillyBob Thunder gave the forecast for the day:

We enjoyed seeing the other kids'/families' creative presentations -- each one was very different.

There was use of technology,

multiple interviews,

dramatic stories about fire rescues...

...and even some (true) reporting of paranormal activity. Each family had a different approach, which is what makes a co-op so much fun, and beneficial!

Music education recommendation

Zeezok Publishing has created these book/CD sets, which I highly recommend. Written at a level that even young children can understand when read aloud, they portray famous composers (in the set I bought, Bach and Mozart) as real people, starting as young boys. The stories are interesting, but I think the best part is having the CD to accompany the story. Various chapters have the composer's music included, so we could play it on the computer at the appropriate part of the story. There is also a way to print out the sheet music, so any piano players in the family could play the compositions as well. And, there are coloring pages to keep kids occupied as they are read to!

I think this is a really unique and interactive way to learn about these famous composers.

Roman archways lesson

My Father's World curriculum has had some great activities for us to do. This was one of my favorite ones so far this year. We learned about how arches work! (We're studying Ancient Rome right now.)

First, we experimented with how much a straight "bridge" could hold:


before it collapsed:Then, we made a bridge with an arch under it. Look how much more it could hold... and we could have kept going!
Using our long-collected empty pudding boxes, and a little bit of sandpaper to replicate the rough textures of the stones, we then made our own arches. Even I was amazed that they stayed up with no "mortar" or anything else to hold them!

It was a fun hands-on lesson.

My friend from high school, Mindy in PA, is also using this same curriculum and they built an arch of their own -- a lot more colorful than ours:

Rome, Pennsylvania, North Carolina.... arches are impressive everywhere. :)

Good web site for games/activities

For those times when I'm trying to focus on one child, and another child needs something to do on their own, preferably educational, we have found this to be a nice solution:

Room 108

We've been exploring some of the activities on this site, and so far some of our favorites are:

http://www.netrover.com/~crose/memory/memory2.htm The old "Simon" game (memory practice)

http://www.netrover.com/~kingskid/tetris/tetris2.html The old "Tetris" game (spatial relations practice

http://www.netrover.com/~kingskid/clock/clock7hour.html For learning how to tell time

http://www.netrover.com/~kingskid/missing/main.htm For counting practice

http://netrover.com/~jjrose/rush/rush108.html "Rush Hour" game (spatial relations, problem solving)

http://www.netrover.com/~kingskid/body/body.html Body parts game

Learning, so we don't repeat it

When Pete and I first had conversations about the academic subjects* we would be teaching our kids, we tried to determine which aspects we thought were most important. Should math be a key focus? Or writing? Science? Ideally, of course, we would teach everything to our kids, but knowing there would be constraints of time, energy, etc., we wanted to see what we thought would be most significant and crucial to the development of our children as they entered adulthood. What did we most want to equip them with? (Clearly, not grammar, as I ended that question with a preposition!)

Math, we concluded, could always be aided with a calculator or Excel, spelling and writing would always have the benefit of the word-processing checkers available these days. Even the memorization of formulas and facts seemed less important with the advent of Googling and easy online research.

But what we keep coming back to is the importance of knowing HISTORY. As Strider and I read in his history book a couple weeks ago, the ancient Roman Cicero said,

"To know nothing of what happened before you were born is to remain forever a child."

And we concur.

So, ever since Strider was in kindergarten, the subject of history has been the main focus of our studies, and we try to weave other subjects in and around whatever time period we're looking into. One of the main benefits of this is that the younger kids can join in, to whatever extent they're able, as talk about people from different eras.

Along the way, we've discovered some really impressive books that people have written, giving us fascinating glimpses into windows of other civilizations and times. These are some of our favorites:

A Child's History of the World by Virgil M. Hillyer. This was the first one I read Strider in kindergarten and it gave a great overview of, well, the history of the world. Obviously it can't be completely comprehensive, but it included a lot of the main things. :) Unfortunately, it was written so long ago that some of the more recent main events (such as World War II!) are not included.
The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer. We own almost all 4 of the volumes in this series now -- and our favorite versions are the CD's. Strider loves to listen to them in his room, or in the car.

"Augustus Caesar's World" by Genevieve Foster. This is the book we're reading this semester. I was a little skeptical at first, fearing it would be rather dry and narrow in its scope. But I, as usual, was quite wrong, and we've enjoyed learning through her "horizontal" approach, as we've read about all different groups of people and events that surrounded this man. Her writing is so conversational and story-like; the people are three-dimensional to us now.

I have loved learning all about HISTORY as I teach my kids. I somehow zoned out during my own childhood and missed most of this. Hopefully we're all gaining in wisdom and insight!

*I am not including "Bible" as an academic subject here. Of course we think that book is of the highest order and should be taught in all things.

Letter Fun Days

When Strider turned 3, I knew I had to do something with this child! (A homeschooling-veteran friend of mine once said that they only year she is tempted to put a child in school is when they are THREE.) Something about the high-energy level, the inquisitiveness, and the desire for constant engagement is enough to put a mom over the edge sometimes.

Philosophically I believed that he was not ready for the regular routine of school, but I wanted just a little bit of structure -- for both of us. I decided to organize one day a week that would have a theme, giving us plenty of fun and activities therein. And the easiest themes were.... the letters of the alphabet.

So I created Letter Fun Days, which was a 26-page/day "curriculum" that I could use easily. Over the next couple of years, we ended up inviting my niece Ellie to join us sometimes, and occasionally we pulled in baby Rayna for the fun, too.

(Here they're making cards for the Grandparents on Letter G Day. Note they're also wearing Green)

Each Letter Fun Day has suggestions for:

Things to wear
Verse to memorize
Spanish word
Foods to eat
Crafts
Activities (inside and outside)
Songs to sing
Poem to memorize

And they all start with the Letter of the Day!

Plus, I made stickers, too, so first thing in the morning, we could put those on to get us all in the festive mood. :)

Now, I'm happy to be able to pull the ol' kit out again and use with the next round of preschoolers (and friends). Colsen has had a little friend from the neighborhood come over a few times, and along with her older sister, and Rayna (and sometimes Miles), we have a fun little group.

Here was Letter T Day several years ago (wearing Ties):
And here was Letter T Day this year (more tie-wearing by the next generation)

and Turtle-making:

It's been just the right amount of structure for us! The kids always love "preschool." :)

New site, first post

I am quite sure the world does not need any more homeschooling blogs.

However, I still have a lot to say about our journey in this arena, so I add my voice to the chorus!

Our family blog (Frankly Journaling) is more of a chronological record of our life as a family, but on this site, I'd like to just create a collection of ideas, thoughts, resources, etc., for my own benefit, and perhaps, as a help to anyone interested in homeschooling, or just starting out.

Now that I've been teaching my kids at home for several years, I find I actually have developed some of my own philosophies, and conclusions .... although they're all moving targets, of course. So, in case any of my ideas or thoughts can help steer someone else, either towards or away from what we've done, here is my new site!